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For those of us who are privileged to own or work with buildings made of logs, we should recognize they have special needs and familiarize ourselves with the maintenance they require and prevent problems that may occur. We at West Coast Restoration have a passion in restoration and construction needs that will keep your log home looking, as it should for many years.

Let’s talk for a bit about borate treatments for your log home. If you’ve never heard of them, you are probably asking, why would I want it? Well, do you hate the thought of termites of all kinds eating at your house? How about Carpenter ants, Old House Borer beetles, powder beetles, and post beetles? Finally, how about Brown Rot, White Rot, mold, mildew and other wood decaying fungi? I didn’t think so. You know, borates can and do kill all the above insects and organisms. Sound a little more interesting now? Let’s get started.

55 years ago, when I was four, my mother had an old Westinghouse wringer washer. I would snuggle up, with my back against that warm living machine down in the basement. It would go slosh wash, slosh wash, slosh wash all afternoon long...just like some giant mechanical heartbeat. Warm and cozy under a blue car blanket...sitting on an orange crate (they had wooden crates then) I spent my winter afternoons snoozing away. Ah, those were the days.

We all know that log homes require some annual maintenance, and sometimes the maintenance is more involved, depending upon the climate. For instance, in Western Washington we have considerably more rainfall than many other states. This demands more attention to the maintenance of a log home—climate can quickly damage unprotected logs. I restored a log home in Hawaii where the climate is hot and humid and the logs on this particular log home were so covered with black mold that, in some areas, it had the appearance of having caught fire.

For my first article that will grace this re-incarnated front page of Log Homes on the Internet, I want to examine the role of design and speak of its future. Undoubtedly, we shall return to this topic many more times in the years to come. Since this is the culmination of my life’s work and passion, I’d like to show you why it is so cool and what talent and technology have in store for us all. Please bear with my erratic thinking here. My mind is something of a billiard ball.